Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Today Shades wanders the world as we add yet another portrait photography book to the collection.

In the 1960s, Libby Hall, a former press photographer, began collecting dog photographs. Originally, it was for the same reasons many of us collect, she was saving orphan photographs from being discarded into dustbins or thrown on bonfires. Libby lives in England, hence the dustbin and bonfire reference.

She fell in love with the photographs of dogs and their people and began collecting. Now that collection is one of the most famous and distinguished in the world.

Hall’s latest book, These Were Our Dogs, published by Bloomsbury in November 2007, contains more than 250 photographs, never before published, from her legendary collection.

With settings ranging from American mining towns to stately British homes to rural Japan, and a cast of characters including princesses, cowboys, clergymen, actresses, toddlers, and octogenarians, more than 250 antique photographs of dogs and their owners are published in this wonderful book.

Some of the portraits show the owner's sense of humor and others show the dog's. Each one is unique. My favorite portrait is an 1871 image of Queen Victoria's personal servant, John Brown, with four of her favorite canines.

This is one of those books you can look through a thousand times and still find something you missed. I also share the attitude of Ms. Hall in her introduction to the book:

I have never been concerned with 'antique' photographs as artefacts, as objects: only with the content of the image. Consequently I have been quite happy to buy pictures that have been in poor condition and to restore and repair them, something that would appal some collectors for whom the condition of the original photograph is all-important. But, while I have had no qualms about restoring a damaged image so that its content is easier to see, I have been scrupulous in not altering in any way the essence of an image."

This is a book of photographs, not a history lesson in photography or social science. What you learn, you glean from the photographs themselves. Where possible information included with the photographs was included in the book.

There are dogs in daguerreotypes, carte-de-visites, cabinet cards, card mounted photographs and snapshots. Dogs in cars, pampered dogs, working dogs, dogs alone, and dogs with their owners. Do dogs look like their owners or vice versa? Sometimes so much so you will laugh out loud.

I will share one photograph from the book. One that contains a woman wearing glasses. Of the over 250 portraits only three had a woman wearing glasses.

4 Comments:

I found you through GoodStock and her article on your blog today. Because of your September 24 entry - I just purchased 4( ! ) of Libby Hall's books, to include the one you featured. They will be Christmas gifts if I don't get greedy and decide to keep them for myself!Will be reading your blog everyday from now on out.~Mad(elyn) in Alabamawww.xanga.com/madewyn

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About Shades Of The Departed

I have been collecting photographs for over twenty years. This blog will discuss that collection, the types of categories I've developed for that collection, and the types of photographs I collect.
I will also share with you what I've learned or am learning about scanning, creating a database, analyzing and dating my collection, and anything else that strikes my fancy related to photography and my collection.

About The Collector

I am fascinated by the clues left in the photographs I collect. Every picture is a miniature mystery and I love a mystery.

My grandfather was a photographer who traveled with the famous Burton Holmes. I am fortunate to have original photographs by
both men.

When I was ten my grandfather gave me a camera as a birthday gift. It was evident that I did not inherit the "photographer gene."
I have taken only one photograph in my entire life that I liked, but I know a good one when I see it.

I am a great appreciator.

Fortunately, I don't take myself too seriously. I know enough about
collecting photographs to know I don't know everything, but I am learning.